Best practices / Advice for a newbie

[toddvirgil]

Got my first load of parts form Tayda electronics today! This'll be my first build using a vero board, and only my second build ever (My first was an EHX LPB1 clone from general guitar gadgets). I'm gonna dive in with a Catalinbread Naga viper.

So, beyond the great build guides here, do you all have any advice for a newbie? What mistakes did you make starting out? What tricks have you learned? I thought this could be a great place to gather all of the "best practices" from the experts around here, and post as you learn new tricks.

Thanks!

Todd

[PStevenson]

run a Stanley knife down each track on the stripboard - this often gets rid of little whiskers of solder you wouldn't see and would ruin a build.

[toddvirgil]

PStevenson wrote

run a Stanley knife down each track on the stripboard - this often gets rid of little whiskers of solder you wouldn't see and would ruin a build.

That's a fantastic idea... so you do that after you're done soldering everthing to the board right?

[Vince]

Definitely the knife in between tracks idea and yes, do it when you have soldered everything to the board. The Viper is great pedal too!

[otalgiafx]

My tips -

1) Use sockets for transistors and sometimes diodes. Means you can experiment with different values and also avoid frying components when soldering.

2) Measure component values with a DMM before using. Takes time but sometimes things like a 1K resistor might be a 10K and kill your circuit!

3) Take a break, drink coffee, drink more coffee

4) Most importantly - Dont solder wearing only boxer shorts

[tonecut]

Welcome! I just recently started as well. The pedal I finished last night was all put together and it didn't work. Found out I had soldered the 9v to the wrong positive lug on the DC Jack.  So that's my tip...make sure you've soldered to the right DC Jack lug. ;)

[toddvirgil]

 

otalgiafx wrote

4) Most importantly - Dont solder wearing only boxer shorts

Ha, fantastic tips, although I just finished some soldering wearing only boxer shorts. Fortunately there were no mishaps, I'll be more careful next time :)

So here's a tip already: Make sure you've ordered all the parts you need... I just found out I'm short two caps and at first I was sure Tayda shorted me, but sure enough, I didn't order them!

[toddvirgil]

So, any soldering tips for these vero boards? I'm able to get a decent connection, but the solder seems to want to wrap around the holes instead of in and up the stems... I never had that problem with PCBs... any tips?

[dodido]

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[JaviCAP]

Yes, always try to put your iron on the most vertical position you are able to, the tip about 1mm to the hole. This way it gets much easier to get the solder well done.

BR

[toddvirgil]

Hey all, just found this awesome pin out chart for transistors over at Beavis audio http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/Transistor-Pinouts/index.htm

Very handy!

[toddvirgil]

JaviCAP wrote

Yes, always try to put your iron on the most vertical position you are able to, the tip about 1mm to the hole. This way it gets much easier to get the solder well done.

BR

Awesome, I'll give that a go

[PStevenson]

dodido - people would be more inclined to give tips if when they: did someone else didn't come along and contradict them.

it's very easy to ruin projects with stray solder whiskers on veroboard - having built many thousands of prototypes on it the rate of success is much higher when I have run a stanley blade down the tracks.
not only that but it also eliminates copper arcs that you may miss when cutting tracks.

another tip for soldering: only use chisel tips on your iron - more surface area on the iron to heat up the solder both on the lead and the track means it's faster to melt the solder, healthier for the components you're soldering and much much easier to get good joints. cone tips are the worst for just about everything but hard access SMD repair

[Geiri]

There's lots and lots of tips in this previous thread here: LINK

[toddvirgil]

Geiri wrote

There's lots and lots of tips in this previous thread here: LINK

Thanks Geiri, didn't see that thread!

[dodido]

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[Madferret]

One of the things that helped me when I started is to double check everything, on one of my first builds I got nearly half way through before realising that I'd cut the vero one row short.  This was followed by ten minutes of swearing.  Equally I had a bad habit of putting 2.2k resistors in instead of 22k at one point.  I realised that until I got a bit better I should definitely start double checking (or measuring as someone suggested) every part, it saved me probably hours of debugging builds.

Something else that really made a difference for me was getting a better soldering iron and starting to use leaded 60/40 solder.  I started off with a £5 iron and a tube of lead free and was always cursing my terrible soldering technique, turns out I wasn't too bad and I just need the right tools.  On the same not, making sure your tip is always clean makes a big difference when soldering (sorry if you already know this), a dirty tip doesn't transfer the heat properly so it takes forever to melt the solder and you risk damaging sensitive parts like ICs and transistors (a good reason to use sockets!).

[PStevenson]

@dodido - well if that's the case I of course apologize, it is easy to get the wrong end of the stick when you only have the text and you're having a bad time of it.


just to add another tip to the thread...

if you have enough money to spare buy yourself a cheap ATTEN hot air gun EXAMPLE

if you get a none working board you can use this to "reflow" the solder on the tracks - often the issue is a bad joint and using this can sometimes cure it.

[GoranP]

What's the difference between that hot air gun and, say, these

http://www.toolstop.co.uk/heatguns-b227

?

[GoranP]

As for best practices, pretty much everything has already been mentioned. I'll just recap the most important for me:

- doublecheck the board size
- triplecheck the cut count  and make sure to mirror the image if necessary
- measure every component, don't trust the baggers at Tayda or wherever
- knife the gaps once done soldering
- use dmm to also check the operation of all the switches (a bum switch is always the last thing I remember to blame)